This invention relates generally to controls for electric range ovens, and, more particularly, to keypad controls for oven ranges.
Electronic, touch sensitive, glass control interfaces are becoming increasingly popular in modem range ovens to control a variety of cooking elements located atop and within a range cabinet. In one type of oven range, the heating elements include a plurality of radiant cooking elements on a top surface of the cooking cabinet, otherwise known as burners, as well as one or more internal cooking elements, such as a bake element and a broil element in a cabinet cooking cavity. Known electronic controls have facilitated expanded oven features beyond conventional mechanically controlled ranges, but tend to be cumbersome and difficult to new users, and tedious and time consuming for other users.
In use, certain oven baking operations are frequently executed that correspond to frequently prepared dishes or baked goods. Control settings, e.g., cooking time and temperature settings, however, typically must be manually entered with each cooking operation, and must be re-entered to switch settings in a cooking operation, or to execute a new cooking cycle. Further, recipes for some dishes, such as quiche, apple pies, pumpkin pies, and cheese cake, require different baking temperatures at different stages in the recipe, for example, a first higher temperature for a certain time period, and a second lower temperature for a second time period. Such recipes require close monitoring of cooking cycles to adjust oven settings at the appropriate time. It would be desirable to provide an oven with programmable cooking routines that are easily accessible without reentering an entire recipe sequence at each cooking operation, and further that automatically accommodates different baking temperatures at different stages in a selected recipe.
In addition, at least one type of known induction cooktop for an oven range includes a surface warmer in addition to cooking burners. Known control systems for surface warmers tend to be sluggish and difficult to use. It would be desirable to provide an easy to use and quickly responsive control interface for a surface warmer.
In an exemplary embodiment, a control system for an oven having at least one cooking element includes a microprocessor operatively coupled to the cooking element, a memory for storing cooking element command recipes for execution by the microprocessor; a display coupled to the microprocessor for displaying operating conditions and oven features, and a user input interface coupled to the microprocessor for user entry of cooking recipes. The microprocessor and the memory are configured to execute at least one of a user-programmed multi-stage cooking recipe and a user programmed favorite recipe recalled from memory in response to manipulation of the user input interface.
More specifically, the microprocessor and memory are configured to execute cooking element command recipes including a cooking mode, an oven temperature, and a cooking time. Up to five frequently used recipes, or favorite recipes, can be stored in system memory for selection by a user. If selected, the microprocessor recalls and executes the stored recipes. Thus, an oven user need not re-enter favorite recipes with each cooking session.
The microprocessor and memory are also configured to execute a multi-stage cooking recipe including a first cooking mode, a first oven temperature, and a first cooking time followed by a second cooking mode, a second oven temperature, and a second cooking time without intervention by a user. Thus, at least two recipes can be combined for automatic sequential execution by the microprocessor. Recipes for dishes requiring different baking temperatures at different stages in the recipe can therefore be cooked unmonitored by the user.
In one embodiment, the oven also includes a surface warmer operatively coupled to the microprocessor and operable at a plurality of power levels., and the input interface includes at least two surface warmer operation input selectors. The microprocessor is configured to operate the surface warmer only upon manipulation of both the first and said second surface warmer input selectors within a pre-determined time, and preheats the surface warmer by applying a 100% duty cycle to the surface warmer until an oven thermal limiter input switch reaches a predetermined temperature. Thus, the surface warmer is easily and readily heated for use.